Junior middleweight contender Gabriel Rosado (21-5) raised some eyebrows when he accepted a fight against WBA middleweight kingpin Gennady Golovkin. Rosado has already secured the mandatory position for a shot at Cornelius "K9" Bundrage's IBF 154 pound title. Rosado knows that while a fight against Bundrage may be easier, a win over Golovkin will do a lot more for his career.

"I saw it as a great opportunity. I clinched the #1 spot as K9's mandatory but I see this as a bigger opportunity. I beat Triple G and I become a star. I know I can do it and I'm going to do it," Rosado would tell us on The Boxing Lab.

"I saw him for the first time on HBO (against Grzegorz Proska) and I was impressed with the guy. I didn't think I'd be fighting him but I was impressed. When I got the phone call I can honestly say I was excited to be able to face him. I'm looking forward to the challenge," he continued.

Rosado didn't start boxing until the age of 18 and experienced a lot of bumps early on in his career as he learned his craft on the job without much of an amateur career. His hard work has paid off as he has achieved a lot of success the past two years. He attributes that success to his work ethic and his desire to improve.

"I'm not the type of fighter who just goes to the gym and trains. I go home and study film with my trainer. I'm always learning and always working on my game. I am always looking to add to my game from the old school fighters," Rosado explained.

More eyebrows were raised when Rosado refused to fight Golovkin at a 158 pound catchweight. Rosado's adviser had successfully negotiated the catchweight but the fighter of Puerto Rican descent refused to fight at any weight lower than the 160 pound middleweight limit. Rosado said that he believes weight classes should be respected and that he would never ask a champion to move down in weight.

"I think catchweights are a joke. How can you fight a champion and tell him to meet you at a catchweight? That's why they have weight classes. I think they have too weight classes anyway. He's the champ so I want to fight him at his weight class plus I don't want those last two pounds to kill him and give him an excuse as to why he lost. I want to beat him fair and square," Rosado stated.

Golovkin-Rosado takes place on January 19th and will be televised by HBO.

As if I wasn't looking forward to this fight already... Goddamn. WAR KINGGGGGG!!! This feels like a free PPV kind of event. Really like the storylines going into that night. Siri/Mikey will be one hell of a fight too.

at 1st I thought GGG was just going to blast this guy but now I'm not so sure.
Rosado started boxing when he was 18, turned pro at 19 and had a lot of on the job training. you look at his earlier fights and his fights from 2012 it's like a totally different fighter.
if you seriously look...